Kirby and the Galaxy Guard
is a Kirby game developed by Pyro Enterprises and a pseudo-remake of Kirby: Starlight Phantoms. The game is designed to take the modern quadrilogy of Kirby titles, beginning with Return to Dream Land, and change up the standard formula by altering the game's progression scheme and introducing more challenging gameplay. Story The story begins with a twinkling night sky, with soft chiming music playing as the camera pans down to a grassy plain. None other than Kirby is sleeping out under the stars, snoring gently as shooting stars pass overhead. The pink puffball awakes, rubbing his eyes as a strange bell-like noise begins playing from an unknown location. Kirby's expression changes from sleepy to concerned when he sees a massive red meteor descending towards Pop Star. Understanding the world is in danger once more, he decides to summon the Warp Star and fly into the skies to investigate. Kirby flies through the air, attempting to pierce straight through the meteor to shatter it. However, he is not powerful enough to accomplish the feat and simply blasts a large crater in the side before getting bounced off. On the surface of the planet, many individuals are simply resting peacefully before getting hit on the head with tiny pieces of meteor, broken off from Kirby's impact. These poor individuals find themselves turned to crystal statues as they sleep, whereas others- like King Dedede- find themselves hiding for cover as some of the chunks land near them, being unable to escape. Only a few scattered around the planet manage to avoid the barrages- Taranza in the skies of Floralia, Adeleine and Ribbon in a deep forest which shields them from the meteors, and Zan Partizanne, shielded from impact by a magic barrier which she holds in an attempt to protect Hyness and her sisters. Kirby descends back to the ground, scared at what he had accidentally caused to happen to Pop Star and all his friends. Seeing the Warp Star's landing, the group of survivors make their way to Kirby's impact site, concerned with what had happened. Kirby points up to the sky, showing the meteor descending as chunks fly across the cosmos, the sky becoming clouded by darkness. With no other option, the four decided to unite in search of a way to stop the meteor and purify the galaxy. Gameplay For the most part, Galaxy Guard remains similar in core gameplay structure to most Kirby titles. Players take control of the titular Kirby and his allies in linear sidescrolling stages, making their way to the end of the level using jumping, dashing, and sliding moves on top of the classic Copy Abilities obtained from inhaling enemies. Unlike previous titles in recent memory, Kirby and his friends lack the ability to block attacks, limiting him instead to only a dodge maneuver that offers split-second intangibility at the cost of being vulnerable afterwards; this was implemented to encourage more aggressive gameplay. Gameplay is generally faster, with both Kirby and enemies being given increased speed to create tenser moments throughout. Rather than a typical world map akin to most Kirby titles, Galaxy Guard features the Galactic Map, a massive celestial map showing a multitude of Planets and smaller objects known as Moons. Planets take the form of a typical Kirby "world", being a small hub area filled with NPCs, shops, small puzzles, and entrances to that planet's traditional linear levels. Moons, in contrast, contain single levels that often offer more of a challenge than a normal level, often revolving around a unique gimmick or challenge. Due to the nature of this map, this means that players are free to play any levels they desire in any order that they wish, in spite of the linear method of unlocking them. The game's collectathon elements have been expanded upon since previous titles, with three main forms of collectibles existent in each level. The primary form of this takes on the form of Meteor Crystal, a distinct scarlet-red mineral that grows over elements of the environment and occasionally shining to reveal its position. Destroying Meteor Crystal erases the dark clouds from the Galactic Map little by little, revealing more levels and content over time. In addition to these, a unique NPC known as a Friend resides in each level found on a Planet, in a similar manner to that of Kirby's Dream Land 3; each Friend requires a unique task to be performed in order to assist them, which will help them appear in the main hub of each Planet. Levels also feature objects known as Space Dust, which take on the form of crystal balls containing pink and cyan sand. Space Dust is more akin to classic Kirby collectibles such as Energy Spheres or Code Cubes, and require more intense puzzle solving to obtain; in return, Space Dust can be spent on various objects in Planets, such as Color Sprays for Kirby and his friends and new Sub-Game modes. Challenge Config Challenge Config is a special mode inspired by the Assist Options present in the game Celeste. The mode more or less consists of a set of options aimed at modifying the gameplay engine, allowing those who seek more of a challenge to do so. Options included in Challenge Config are: *Base Health- Reduce the base health of Kirby and other players for a greater challenge. *Food Rarity- Make life restoring food less common, or turn it off entirely. Contains an additional option to replace Maxim Tomatoes with standard tomato items. *Boss Invincibility- Modify the number of frames after a boss is hit that it is invulnerable to damage. Higher amounts mean fewer opportunities to damage a boss. *Kirby's Invincibility- Modify the number of frames Kirby is immune to damage after getting hurt. *Kirby's Dodge- Alter the length and invincibility period of Kirby's dodge, or toggle it on and off entirely. *Dark Bosses- A special option unlocked after beating the game once. If toggled on, replaces all bosses with Dark variants, which have harder attacks, more health, and more intelligent AI. Game Modes The standard story mode, featuring Kirby and his friends in the newly dubbed Galaxy Guard! In this mode, Kirby and crew set off across the galaxy to break as much Meteor Crystal as possible, cleansing the darkness from the universe and hopefully getting a shot at stopping the great meteor approaching Pop Star. An alternative take on Adventure Mode open after clearing it once, designed to offer a rather different experience than the standard mode. In Impact Adventure, Kirby faces the countdown to destruction as the meteor approaches Pop Star more rapidly; it's a race against the in-game clock to clear each level as fast as you can! No Galactic Map is present in this mode, and players are simply ushered on to the next level immediately upon completing the previous one- Moon levels are skipped in this mode as well. Destroying Meteor Crystal, rescuing Friends, and obtaining Space Dust all add bits of precious time to the clock... It's up to an aspiring speedrunner to determine if they're worth grabbing or not. ???? Unlocked after completeing Adventure mode for the first time. The Arena of Champions is a twist on the standard boss rush arenas found in Kirby titles, in which Kirby faces off against every boss in the game in one continuous run-through. The Arena of Champions modifies this basic structure by reducing the downtime between matches, as well as providing a twisted variant on the difficulty slider found in Star Allies. When players open up the Arena of Champions, they are approached with an image of Kirby and the other playable characters crowded around a large ice cream sundae, which gains more toppings and scoops the higher the difficulty becomes. Upon selecting a difficulty, players are thrown into a large room with a door representing every boss- the player will only be able to choose the first boss out of the available selection. Upon beating a boss, the player will receive a Ranking from E''' to '''S based on various factors in the fight; how quickly the player defeats the boss, how much damage they take, and how many times the player manages to perform a Stylish maneuver on a boss weakpoint. This Ranking is then converted into Arena Credits; as a boss is defeated, both a portal to the next boss and a small shop run by Magolor will spawn. Magolor will sell the player healing items and extra abilities which they can purchase with Arena Credits; as the difficulty becomes harder, Magolor's prices will also rise. Ending the run with the most Arena Credits contributes to the highest overall score. Meta Knight's Sky Hunters is a simple bullet hell-style shooter game starring Meta Knight, who tasks himself with fending off beings from past Kirby titles descending from the sky. The game is played from a top-down perspective, with Meta Knight able to fly across the entire screen with ease with the control stick. Holding down enables Meta Knight to repeatedly fire sword beams in a rapid-fire fashion, while tapping causes Meta Knight to perform a quick slash attack in front of him; this attack deals more damage than sword beams and can cancel out certain types of enemy bullets, but cannot be held down and has very low range. Hitting or performs a quick dash in whatever direction Meta Knight is moving, offering temporary invincibility. The more this dash is used in rapid succession, however, the slower and more vulnerable the player becomes. As the player defeats enemies and earns blue Power Orbs, they are able to expend this precious currency on a technique known as Galaxia Darkness, which can be triggered by pressing . This move will clear the screen of all projectiles and prevent others from being fired for a short time, making it good as a last-ditch effort if the player is overwhelmed. The player can also build up power for Galaxia Darkness by moving near projectiles without hitting them. This technique is called Grazing, and the radius at which the player can approach these projectiles is shown as a small circle around Meta Knight at all times. The game offers 5 stages, as well as one EX Stage unlocked by gaining at least a Gold ranking on all other stages. Rankings are obtained based on the speed at which players clear the stage as well as how much Power they manage to accumulate, with bonuses provided for not getting hit and not utilizing Galaxia Darkness. Kawasaki Quest is a short retro-style RPG starring Chef Kawasaki in his quest to find the 5 Super Ingredients from various dungeons across Popstar. The game is played from a top-down perspective akin to the original The Legend of Zelda title on NES, with the player navigating small dungeons while looking for keys to progress further, reaching the boss at the end. Scattered throughout each dungeon are small black blobs which move about, and represent enemy encounters. Contact with these blobs will send Kawasaki and his party into a battle, which takes on a turn-based style. Within the context of battle, each party member has multiple options- Attack, which simply deals damage to the target, Skills, which opens up one of four unique character-specific abilities, Item, which enables the character to use an item that they have picked up, or Charge, which raises defense for one turn and charges up the power of that character's next attack or special technique. The game does not utilize an MP system, but some powerful skills possess cooldowns, preventing them from being used every single turn. Defeating enemies provides Kawasaki and his party with Gem Apples, which acts as a form of currency within the subgame. Gem Apples can be taken to a store run by Magolor found at the front of each dungeon, where the player can purchase various items. *'Items' are standard consumable items that can be used in battle to restore or empower party members. These consist of Soup Bowls, which restore health, Cake, which revives KOed allies with small amounts of health, Steak, which gives a party member a stat boost, and Hot Peppers, which can be thrown at enemies for additional damage. All items come in standard, Big, and Deluxe varieties, which increase in cost and effectiveness as they get larger. *'Tonics' act as the replacement for a standard levelup system, enabling the player to purchase Tonics themed after different stats and feed them to each party member, increasing that stat. The Tonics that can be purchased include HP, Attack, Defense, Speed, and All-Stat, which also come in standard, Big, and Deluxe sizes. *'Weapons' can be purchased to alter the equipment of the party, but rather than being used to augment stats, these weapons instead provide passive bonuses to the party based on their design. There are four classes of weapons: Pans for Kawasaki, Brooms for Gryll, Spears for Bandana Dee, and Canes for Daroach. The ultimate goal is to make your way through each dungeon and defeat the boss at the end, letting you receive a final overall score based on how many enemies were defeated, how many Gem Apples were obtained, and how quickly you managed to defeat the boss. This forces players to have to strike a balance between leveling up to face foes or simply rushing to the end, doing whatever they can for the sake of a high score. The playable party is as follows: Dungeons Sub-Games The unlockable sub-games that Kirby can unlock by purchasing with Space Dust. These tend to be more simplistic than the side modes, and offer a fun distraction. Characters Copy Abilities features ?? Copy Abilities, with 34 returning abilities and ?? new abilities. New Abilities Levels Moons Bosses Trivia *Much of the game's emphasis on collecting objects and increased difficulty stems from the DLC mode in Star Allies, Heroes In Another Dimension. **The Galactic Map was inspired by the dome maps found in Super Mario Galaxy, despite the intense differences in how they function. Category:Fan Games Category:Games Category:Kirby (series) Category:Kirby Games Category:Remakes Category:Platforming Games Category:3D Platforming Games Category:Nintendo Games Category:Pyro Enterprizes